


Together, Alone

by JoyHeart



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Abandonment, Backstory, F/F, F/M, Fusion, Hurt/Comfort, Loneliness, Obsession, Perfectionism, exploration of character, staying strong for others
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-13 03:55:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4506756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyHeart/pseuds/JoyHeart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garnet is perfect. She is the manifestation of the ideal relationship between two gems that could not live without each other as close as two could be. Her plans always succeed and she is stronger than anyone, stable and confident. Pearl, Amethyst, and Steven could not be luckier to have her leading them into battle.</p><p>But after a particularly close call in the arctic against a Hydra creature and facing off once more against Peridot and Malachite, Garnet is put under more pressure than ever before, and this time she might need to rely on help from an unexpected source.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You Are An Experience

**Author's Note:**

> This might be slow to update but I really want to write about Garnet. She is my favourite character on the show and she deserves all the love and backstory and character exploration.

            “GARNET! BEHIND YO- oh,” Pearl coughed lightly as Garnet turned part way through her warning and sliced through the snake-like head of the gem-creature that had launched the attack. Pearl had forgotten Garnet’s future vision. She turned back to the other heads of the Hydra that were quickly sprouting around them.

            “Watch out for Amethyst and Steven! I’ll be fine!” Garnet said in response, Pearl nodding and quickly running to Amethyst’s aid as Steven seemed to be alright using his shield as defense for the moment.

            They were fighting outside yet another relic from the Gem war on Earth centuries ago. A mighty cliff-side observatory, used to monitor an icy wasteland where gems would train for returning to Home World for further battles. The observatory would be home to records of gems and battle tactics that Pearl suggested could be useful if Peridot manages to bring an army from Home world back to attack the Earth. This Hydra-like monstrosity had attacked them when they tried approaching the structure, bursting up from the ice, three mighty heads squawking. The four Crystal Gems had wasted no time in decapitating the creature… but instead of retreating to a gem the heads had regrown in pairs, leaving six to attack. More decapitations, more heads were grown, and now they were fighting a swarm of them.

            Garnet knew they had to act fast. “Pearl! Amethyst! If you’re comfortable, I need you to form Opal and use her bow to strike at the creature’s body!”

            “Urgh,” Pearl muttered as Amethyst laughed and nodded. Steven’s eyes twinkled as he turned to watch, he loved it when he got to see that elusive Giant Woman! The two quickly danced around the lunging heads and the ensuing flash of light left the gigantic, shimmering, white figure of Opal reaching behind herself for her bow and arrow. Gracefully taking aim, she fired at the body of the beast… only to miss when hit on one side by a snake head.

            “YOU MISSED?!” Steven screamed, only just shielding in time to block a nasty strike. He had never seen Opal miss before! Were they in trouble? He looked at Garnet with fear in his eyes and Garnet steeled herself.

            “Steven! I need you to guard Opal when she takes another shot! I’ll clear a path!” Garnet ran forward, punching snakes out of the way and leaving a clear tunnel toward the target as Steven hurried to shield Opal’s back from attacks as she groped for another arrow.

            “Thank you Steven,” Opal said with a soft smile, “Watch out for yourself too, alright?”

            “You’ve got it, Opal!” Steven smiled back, wielding his shield like a pro. Opal couldn’t help but giggle a little. Steven was getting so much better at combat these days! With any luck, he will have at least rudimentary mastery over Rose’s powers by the time the Home World army reached them… Opal shook away such thoughts as she took aim, waiting for Garnet to get through to the heart of the beast.

            Suddenly though, there was a loud thud and a shriek as the Hydra landed a heavy blow on Garnet from multiple sides. Opal shrieked in response, letting her arrow go too soon and Garnet had just enough time to turn and look devastated as the arrow pierced her forehead, shattering her glasses as Steven joined in the scream when Garnet glowed and retreated into the gems left lying on the ground.

*

            _“You are not two people. You are not one person. You are an experience. Make it a fun one.”_

            Words to live by, when one is a permanent fusion. Garnet had been conceived as a never-ending experience. A happy moment so strong, stable, and powerful, that no one and nothing could bring about her downfall. When Ruby and Sapphire had chosen to consummate their love in this way, the homeworld had not welcomed them. Oh, there had been a time long-past in gem history where fusion was sacred and blessed. When those who had chosen to live permanently as fusions were treated with awe and respect. But those were ancient times indeed, back before Garnet’s chosen planet of earth had even formed in the great cosmos of space. By the time of Garnet’s creation, fusions in daily life were short, temporary, and made to serve specific purposes- most often in war. Even then, they were often seen as a cheap tactic to gain more power in combat when a gem would be too “weak” to fight on their own.

When Ruby and Sapphire chose to remain linked, many saw them as two, tiny, weak, gems trying to cling to each other in a desperate bid for power. Garnet was spat on, shunned, and so she became cold and calculated, fighting as needed and keeping to herself. A rogue. She saw no need to interact with others since, after all, as a fusion she was never _truly_ alone. That said, sometimes it would be hard to spend long nights on the plains staring at the stars in the grass with no one to talk to.

Ruby and Sapphire were not separate consciousnesses within her, at least, not in the sense that each of them saw out their own eyes and spoke in their own voice. If ever there would be a conflicting view between the two of them it would surface in Garnet’s mind like one’s own inner voices muddling through the pros and cons of an issue. If something ever shook her up hard enough she might destabilize and become two people again, but that was rare indeed and usually ended with the two tearfully holding one another and quickly becoming Garnet once again. Garnet could not ever be entirely alone because she would always feel the connection between Ruby and Sapphire. It was always there, thumping like a heartbeat, granting her the life she led. However, when one remains a fusion so long, that thump of connection can start to fade into the background, requiring effort to remember you aren’t alone out there in the dark.

It had taken a long time to trust Rose Quartz and Pearl. Luckily, as gems, they had time enough.

Despite being ostracized, these two had not been the first gems to extend a hand of “friendship” toward Garnet. Despite there being more powerful fusions, Garnet’s stability leant her maneuverability in battle other fusions lacked, and her long stay in fusion form had given her more chance to train with those manoeuvres. She had been approached multiple times by gems leading armies and looking to recruit her services. Sometimes, when funds were scarce and the job was quick, she might take them up on it. But she would often leave quickly, the hushed, mocking voices of her comrades in arms hurtful. Worse than that, she would see gems ordered to fuse on command, experiments in fusion to bring out the most powerful weapons. She had been asked to fuse with others on multiple occasions and every time she had refused, fleeing if they got insistent. Three was a crowd, after all, and she would never fuse with someone she had no connection to.

At first, Garnet had assumed Rose Quartz and Pearl were the same. They had their army. They were off to fight to claim new planets like so many others. She had seen Rainbow Quartz take to the battlefield from afar in the past and while she saw it was a more stable fusion than most she had assumed they were merely partners in battle like all the rest.

She had been wrong. Perhaps it had started that way for them, but as Garnet agreed and fought alongside them, she saw the absolute devotion of Pearl to Rose Quartz, and the tender affection Rose returned in kind. She observed the army rarely had fusions among them, and each fusion was only amongst those who volunteered to do so. She noticed how often Rose and Pearl would have her back on the battlefield, and would happily invite her along to celebrations. She noted that, while the hushed voices occurred among the rest of the Crystal Gem army, Rose Quartz’s presence quieted them and once, 500 years after Garnet began her service with the Crystal Gems, Pearl had quietly and reverently asked what it might be like to be a permanent fusion, gushing over how happy she always felt as Rainbow Quartz, and hesitantly asking if maybe, someday, she could try to fuse with Garnet?

At the time, Garnet had been overwhelmed with emotion and excused herself. This had caused Pearl a lot of anxiety at the time over offending the powerful gem that Rose Quartz had tried so hard to gain the trust and loyalty of. But in the end, in the midst of a particularly tough fight, Garnet had whispered that they could give it a try. Pearl’s look of absolute joy was infectious, and Sardonyx had been the surprising save of the day. Rose Quartz had congratulated them both with a genuine, wide smile and a fierce hug when they defused, and Garnet felt, after millennia, that she was accepted. That she had something to fight for other than the right to exist. Her experience became a lot more fun after that.

Eventually the Crystal Gems would come to conquer Earth. Eventually, they would succeed and destroy a Kindergarten the previous gem army had planted there. Eventually they would adopt Amethyst into their ranks and Rose Quartz would fall in love with the blue skies and grass and seas and the Crystal Gems would protect the silly creatures that grew there. And Rose Quartz would fall in love with one of them, and die to birth a son, Steven Universe, whom Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst would love from the tips of his toes to the curls of his hair.

Garnet had been excited to introduce the concept of fusion to the small boy. When Steven found a fierce friend in young Connie, Garnet had been over the moon with happiness to find Steven’s simple affection had led to a fusion! Garnet was practically glowing inside, for this fusion was untainted by the need for war or anything else. It was just an experience, a beautiful experience. And so Garnet gave her advice and sent Stevonnie on their way. She had been so very proud on that day and immediately began to plan for revealing herself to be a fusion, and introducing Ruby and Sapphire, on his next birthday.

Before then, though, Peridot struck and Steven had to meet them at a bad time indeed. Separated without warning and without the other in sight after a few centuries, Ruby and Sapphire could think of nothing except finding one another. Once they did they fused immediately, to Steven’s amazement. The second time they met was also under poor circumstance, when Pearl had upset Garnet so much that it caused enough discord to cause defusion. Both again only spoke of the other, and even when they made up they fused again before Steven could actually speak to them properly.

Garnet had yet to give Steven the proper introduction she wanted, but it was hard for her to think of defusing and plan for it since it happened so little and, due to the nature of it, once it happened Garnet could not control what would happen during the meeting. There was no way to prep Ruby and Sapphire for the separation. They would know why it happened, but tempering the nervous tick within each of them to rejoin as quickly as possible would be, truthfully, nearly impossible.

Garnet assumed this was because their relationship was so very stable that to separate destabilized Ruby and Sapphire to the core and made the two act irrationally. She assumed this was natural for two as in sync as the beings that combined to make her physical body.

She might be wrong to assume this.

*

            On the battlefield, Ruby and Sapphire reformed in chaos. Being small gems, they didn’t need very long to re-orient their bodies after retreating into their gems, but however long they had been out was long enough for Opal to be forced to defuse, for Steven to rush up one of the necks of the creature in a dash fueled by some misplaced need for revenge in Garnet’s honour, for Ruby and Sapphire’s gems to get knocked to opposite sides of the fray.

            Ruby had landed next to Amethyst and started shrieking immediately.

            “WHERE’S SAPPHIRE?! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD I NEED TO GET BACK TO HER! IS SHE HURT? WHAT HAPPENED?”

            “Woah, hey, cool it will ya? It’s hard enough to fight this thing! Help a sista out?” Amethyst snorted as her whip cracked and severed yet another head leaving two in its place. She sighed. “I’m starting to think I should stop doing that.”

            Ruby, however, wasn’t listening. She was squinting through the trashing body parts, trying to catch a flash of blue. Even as Amethyst was grabbed by a head and tried biting her way out, instead of helping Ruby jumped into the fray and began running, frantically calling out Sapphire’s name in repetition.

            “Well some help you are, damn,” Amethyst muttered as she gave a twist and managed to free herself, though not without causing a severe rip down the skin of her arm. She winced, holding it and dancing away from a couple of attacks, only to be grabbed again. She let out a roar as she was dragged.

            Across the field, Sapphire awoke next to Pearl. She figured out what had happened much faster than Ruby and appeared to be taking things rather better.

            “Sapphire! Are you alright?” Pearl asked as she used her staff to block an attack.

            “Yes… yes I’m fine. I’m sure Ruby reformed nearby and we will quickly reform to defeat this creature,” Sapphire said as she got to her feet and began looking around.

            “O-oh! That’s great! So, um, until then, mind lending a hand?” Pearl asked as she wrested with a head, letting out a shout as she slid suddenly. Glancing down she saw the ground had turned into a skating rink… centred on a certain blue and seemingly calm tiny gem. “Um, is this helping?” Pearl asked hopefully, “Are you um, looking to change the battlefield? To make us, uh…” she was getting pushed across the ice now, “THIS IS PART OF THE PLAN, RIGHT? RIGHT?” Pearl screamed as she was pushed quickly away from Sapphire, who continued to look into the folds of the Hydra, side stepping attacks before they reached her with a calculated expression on her face.

            “Ruby will be here soon, she is most likely running through the mass and it is most beneficial that I remain where I am to meet her most quickly,” Sapphire mumbled to herself as Pearl’s shouts faded and the circle of ice grew wider.

            Ruby ended up passing Steven while on her mad dash to find Sapphire. He had encased himself in his protective bubble shield, but the repeated smashing of heads against it was causing it weaken. Steven looked relieved to see Ruby running toward him.

            “RUBY!” Steven cheered, “Oh man, am I glad to see you! I don’t think this will last much longer! Just smack these away and I’ll… I’ll uh… Ruby? You’re uh, coming at me kind of fa-AAAAAAAAAAAST!” Ruby had smacked directly into the shield and shattered it, sending Steven flying high out of the mass of writhing snakes and through the air.

            “Oh, oh, SORRY STEVEN!” Ruby cried, shutting her eyes momentarily as she sped up, “Garnet will catch you as soon as I FIND **_SAFFY_**!”

            In the end the growing circle of ice _was_ actually beneficial, as in that moment Ruby stepped on the surface without noticing and as the steam rose from her super-heated body and melted it behind her, she still ended up sliding very fast directly toward Sapphire. Sapphire’s head rose as soon as she recognised the flash of red coming toward her, and she grinned widely as she began to figure skate in preparation so when Ruby finally hit and grabbed her, a flash of light was immediate and Garnet sprang back into existence.

            Garnet took a deep breath and ran. “Now to catch Steven,” she said, her mind flashing forward to figure out where Steven would land based on speed and trajectory… and her heart sinking as she pushed herself to move faster, realizing she wouldn’t be fast enough. Luckily it seemed the snake heads were retreating around her, she hoped that was a good thing. He would… Steven would…

As she ran in the direction Steven had flown Garnet could feel the tears already filling her eyes behind her glasses… but then stopped to see Pearl holding the boy and Amethyst quickly approaching with a giant grin on her face.

            “Hey! Good catch, Pearl!” Amethyst cheered. Pearl stared down at Steven who was babbling about how cool she was.

            “Oh, he actually headed right for me! Barely had to do a thing! Ha, I knew that ice had to be part of the plan! And there’s Garnet! Great! Garnet never lets us down!” Pearl waved.

            “Yep! Garnet’s pretty perfect, alright!” Amethyst smiled, “I mean, I kind of wish Ruby had helped when I was getting eaten but I mean, some things take timing. And I ended up getting dragged  right to the body of the thing and just started WAILING ON IT! And the heads started coming back but all the weight ended up breaking the ice and sending it back under the ice! All worked out, according to plan, right Garnet? Uh… you okay there Garnet?” Amethyst said hesitantly.

            Steven’s eyes widened. “Are… are you crying?”

            Garnet quickly stilled her shaking shoulders and turned to wipe at the trail of tears that had trickled into view. It had all worked out. Despite everything, things had worked out. She had broken apart and things still reformed positively. This was good this was fine it was… too close. She can’t allow herself to get overwhelmed like that again. Her future vision had been clouded by the battle and then by Ruby and Sapphire’s panic. She can’t allow herself to risk defusing in battle. It was too dangerous. Luckily, her teammates had not lost faith in her. She had to maintain that faith, she had to keep them together. Without her strength, they could fall apart.

            Garnet turned back to smile confidently at the worried faces looking up at her. “Yes, everything went according to plan. I just got some dust in my eyes from the battle, that’s all.”

            “Oh, okay!” Steven smiled back.

            “Heh, yeah! Hard to believe a little dust is enough to squeeze tough-gal tears from you!” Amethyst laughed.

            “Amethyst!” Pearl reprimanded, “You know Garnet is the best leader we could ask for, under the circumstances!” no one needed to prod to know she meant in lieu of Rose. Garnet didn’t mind that.

            “Everyone has weaknesses, even me,” Garnet said quietly as they headed for the warp pad to regroup to attack the Hydra again, since it hadn’t actually been defeated, just driven back.

            “Yeah, but DUST?!” Amethyst snorted as they got onto the pad and the light flashed to transport them home.

            “Sometimes a weakness isn’t what you would expect,” Garnet said distantly.

            “Garnet is really smart!” Steven whispered loudly to Pearl.

            Garnet smiled at that. She hoped she could keep morale up until Peridot got there. She hoped she could keep the team together.

            She hoped she could keep herself together. She was strongest together, the most able to help. Together, as Garnet, she alone could take on an army and protect the people she cares for, no matter the cost to herself. As long as she stayed together.

            But until then, she could at least smile and pretend everything is okay. After all, she was perfect, her relationship was perfect, her fusion was stable and strong. She would make everything okay.


	2. To Fight As One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garnet sits in on Steven and Connie's training session.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More poking at Garnet's sore spots before we rip into them next chapter :)

“Alright! Today we are going to practice tag-team maneuvres!” Pearl cleared her throat as Steven and Connie looked up at her expectantly on the training field. Connie gripped Rose’s sword expertly now, and Steven clutched his shield will the eagerness he always had when he and Connie got to train together. “I uh, I’m not _personally_ completely familiar with all the maneuvers I studied up on, but with Garnet watching over this session, I’m certain it will go smoothly.”

            “Yeah! I know it’ll be great! HI GARNET!” Steven waved at the bleacher where Garnet sat with her eyes on the small training party.

            “Hello Steven,” Garnet replied, obediently raising a hand in greeting. Steven and Connie looked at each other and giggled before turning back to Pearl with serious faces as she demonstrated the moves they would practice on her simulated self that day.

*

            Steven had, in the past, asked Pearl and Amethyst what fusion was like for them.

            “Fusion is an very intimate connection,” Pearl had sighed wistfully, her gem sparkling and beaming out an image of Rainbow Quartz dancing, “You get to feel what it’s like to be another person, to meld yourself with their strengths and forget your own weaknesses, if only for a single battle.”

            “So you liked to fuse with my mom? What about Amethyst? You know how much I love that GIANT WOMAN! (giant woman),” Steven had echoed himself and Pearl had scoffed.

            “Well that’s…” Pearl groped for a response, biting at her lip and cringing, “I suppose in that case… uh…”

            “OR GARNET? I mean, I know you and Garnet made up over all that but you must really like being a part of her or you wouldn’t have betrayed her trust like that!” Steven blurted without thinking.

            Pearl blushed hard and stammered a moment, looking around for her teammates but they were alone in the temple for the moment. Then she sighed blissfully, holding herself. “Oh, being Sardonyx… to feel that overwhelming confidence! The belief in one’s self, its intoxicating! To know what is coming, and what I need to do without an order… it’s more than I can describe! I can forget every insecurity, it’s… amazing…”

            Steven had suddenly felt indescribably uncomfortable and excused himself. Another time he found himself speaking to Amethyst about the same question.

            “Fusion is AWESOME!” Amethyst enthused, throwing a fist in the air, “You get to feel POWERFUL! I mean, I kick butt most of the time, but when you fuse with someone else you kick TWICE the butt! You know?”

            “That does sound cool!” Steven agreed, “Do you feel like that when you fuse with Pearl?”

            “Uh,” Amethyst flushed a bit and kicked at the ground, “Um, well YEAH, I mean, it DOES feel like I’m more powerful. But in a weird way?”

            Steven waited for Amethyst to say more but quickly sensed the mood growing awkward. He decided to chime in, “Okay but what about with Garnet?”

            “Aw man, being SUGALITE?! That’s METAL! Oh man, okay, so imagine all my muscles, plus all Garnet’s muscles, plus EVERY OTHER MUSCLE ON THE PLANET! And then add on the feeling that YOU CAN CRUSH ANYTHING YOU WANT!”

            “Uh… that sounds… dangerous…” Steven said, remembering last time they formed Sugalite.

            “Yeah well, only because it’s hard to stop,” Amethyst shrugged, “I mean, it’s one thing to talk about the confidence and another to be experiencing it. Being fused with Garnet is like the BEST DRUG EVER. It keeps you so high up, you never want to come down!”

            “Hmm,” Steven had hummed and contemplated this. In the end he had left to go find Connie to talk things over. They had decided that maybe fusion was different for everyone and had gone on to build a sandcastle together.

*

            Back in the moment, Garnet was pleased with what she was seeing. Connie and Steven had moved on to practicing the moves Pearl had demonstrated, and were doing rather well. So well, in fact, that Pearl had decided to face them both alongside her double, and even then the two children were holding their own rather well. Steven was careful to watch Connie’s back through each assault and Connie was quick to look for openings, quicker than she would have been on her own having to divide her attention with avoiding blows.

            Their footwork was impeccable as well, like dancing in circles, one blocking and the other quick to step in with a jab. It was so much like dancing, in fact, that to Pearl and Garnet’s astonishment Steven’s gem began to glow and in moments Stevonnie was left looking surprised and holding a shield in one hand and a sword in the other.

            “We fused? While fighting? How do you then, and you, us, we… I need to learn how to fight like this!” Stevonnie finally shouted, startling Pearl who clutched at her chest before swallowing.

            “Ah, yes, of course. Well, it’s only natural you learn combat while fused as well, given the extra strength it offers, but I was not intending to move onto that until you mastered the basics of fighting as two people, so for now it’s best if you separated and then-“

            “No,” Garnet’s voice carried across the arena and both of the other looked up at her as she jumped from the stands and landed in front of them. “Peridot and the Home World army could become major adversaries at any time. If Stevonnie is ready to learn to fight as a fusion, I would be happy to tutor them.”

            “Oh! But uh, I thought I could…” Pearl saw Garnet’s look and blushed furiously, stepping back. “O-of course, you WOULD be most qualified to talk about fighting as a fusion! Go right ahead! Not that you need permission or anything, I mean, I don’t want to offend-“

            Garnet took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. Pearl was getting anxious, as she knew she would. As much as they may have “made up” after Pearl’s deception, as much as she understood that when she fused with others they often got… dependant to some extent, she still harboured some hard feelings about the issue. But they really couldn’t afford that now, Sapphire had been right, and now that Ruby was coming around to that way of thinking Garnet had to make peace on a consistent basis. She offered Pearl a smile. “I promise this is only temporary, think of me as a guest teacher for a specific skill set, if it makes it easier to surrender your students.”

            Pearl returned the smile shakily and nodded. “Yes… yes of course! Right, I’ll just be over here! Watching! Okay!” Pearl skipped up into the stands and sat attentively. Garnet nodded to her before turning to Stevonnie with a less stiff grin.

            “So, are you ready to fight as a fusion?”

            “Yes!” Stevonnie smiled widely, raising their sword high and holding their shield across their chest. Garnet had to admit they looked pretty heroic.

            “Alright. First, I want you to close your eyes,” Garnet said slowly as Stevonnie complied, “If you are going to fight as a fusion, you need to know every part of your body. Every limb, every nerve, every sensory organ. You must feel each one out and make sure you are in control of every one of them. You must remember that you are not two people, and not one person. You make decisions together, and move under your own power. You are an experience. Make sure it’s a good experience.”

            Stevonnie nodded, seeming very focused on Garnet’s words. There was silence for a moment. Then Stevonnie lowered their arms a little. “Er, now what?”

            “Now, you fight me,” Garnet said, sliding into a battle stance.

            “Wait, what?” Stevonnie jolted, paling, “Um, a-are you sure? So soon? I mean, I don’t know if I’m ready to-“

            “I’ll go easy on you.”

            “Oh,” Stevonnie laughed, “Well that’s good I was afraid you might- AH!” Stevonnie yelped and only just managed to get their shield up in time to block a giant metal fist aimed at their face. “GARNET!” Stevonnie yelled as the fists continued to rain on their shield, pushing them across the floor.

            “You have to fight back, Stevonnie!” Garnet insisted, not letting up ever slightly, “Defense is fine, but you cannot defeat your enemies if you can’t strike them as well!”

            “But, but I can’t focus on fighting if you keep hitting that often!” Stevonnie whined, trying to dig their heels in to stop getting pushed back and instead falling and landing on their butt, using their full strength just to keep up their shield. “Wait a minute!” Stevonnie smiled, getting an idea. Contorting their body to get their feet and powerful thighs to hold up the shield for them, they swung their sword in the small space offered to slam into Garnet’s heel. This caught the gem off guard, allowing for a pause where Stevonnie got back on their feet and charged the larger gem, only to be blocked by a  metal fist an once again found themselves being pushed back by the punches on their shield.

            “Nice work there, but you’ll have to do better than that in combat!” Garnet said, looking exhilarated as she pummeled the shield.

            “Argh! This isn’t working! I can’t shield and attack properly like this!” Stevonnie muttered to themself before coming to the only logical conclusion. In a flash of light, the two defused. Garnet fumbled in her surprise over this development, letting Steven catch her fist on his shield while Connie darted out and landed a solid blow on her side. Both let out a cheer as Garnet stumbled back, clutching at her side more in shock than pain.

            “I… didn’t foresee that,” Garnet mumbled before shaking her head a bit, “That… did work well as a surprise attack, but on the battlefield it’s a dangerous tactic. As Stevonnie you have a lot more body strength, and it’s much safer for both of you not to defuse if you can help it.”

            “But, this made the most sense! We couldn’t concentrate well enough to fight as Stevonnie like that!” Steven insisted.

            “Yeah, I mean, I love being Stevonnie! But made they just aren’t meant to be a fighter?” Connie suggested. Garnet looked a bit uneasy.

            “Well… I suppose that’s possible. Your fusion _was_ a result of, essentially, fun and friendship…”

            “Right!” Connie smiled, “So maybe we’re better off fighting back to back?”

            “No,” Garnet said this so resolutely that Steven and Connie looked a bit alarmed, so Garnet quickly softened her tone. “I only mean that, for now yes it will be easier for you two to fight in your usual bodies. But even if Stevonnie isn’t a natural fighter, by nature of them being a fusion they will have more inner power than either of you on your own. It will take time to master, but I don’t want you to give up on it, alright?”

            “Well…” Connie looked at Steven, who smiled reassuringly.

            “Alright!” Steven threw a fist in the air, “We won’t give up! I mean, if Garnet says it’s best, it probably is, RIGHT PEARL?”

            “Oh! Yes! That’s right Steven!” Pearl nodded furiously from the bench.

            “Right,” Garnet said, seeming to relax a bit more. She raised her metal fists again. “So, ROUND 2!”

            “Oh! Uh, Garnet!” Pearl called, hurrying toward them. “Maybe, um, since they are still working out how to fight as a fusion and your fighting is a bit, well, high level? They could just work with my clones for now?”

            Garnet paused, them cleared her throat and straightened up. “Yes… that seems appropriate.”

            Both Steven and Connie breathed a sigh of relief. Garnet stuck around long enough to see Stevonnie reform before leaving, Stevonnie waving goodbye before turning to Pearl and raising their sword.

            “Alright! Round 2!” Stevonnie announced, looking much more confident.

            “Level Zero,” The conjured clone barely spoke before Stevonnie chopped it in half, laughing loudly.

            “That wasn’t so hard!” Stevonnie grinned. Pearl nodded pleasantly.

            “Yes, you will do fine, I’m sure!”

            The clone reformed. “Level One.” Before Stevonnie could take a swing, the clone was shooting laser beams from its eyes and lunging at them. Letting out a shriek, Stevonnie started running laps around the arena while Pearl shouted encouragement from the centre.

            Meanwhile, Garnet headed into her room of the temple to get some time alone. Well, as alone as she could get anyway. She sat cross legged on the ground, trying to meditate a bit and ease her mind. It was, of course, completely alright if Stevonnie didn’t want to fight. Garnet was only worried about the fight ahead and making sure her family was ready to fight when the time came, and Stevonnie wouldn’t necessarily be integral to that.

            Even so, with her own worries regarding maintaining her own fusion, seeing those two who have such a perfectly blended fusion easily split up and continue fighting was unsettling. She couldn’t quite pinpoint why. Maybe it was just because, since she had been fused so long and obviously grew to be more than Ruby and Sapphire had envisioned, she could not remember a time when the two who made her would have been able to defuse even in a moment of necessity without losing sight of the objective at hand to rejoin again. Admittedly, Garnet had not met another permanent fusion in a very, very long time and so she could not be sure if such devotion was exactly normal at this stage, but after seeing Steven and Connie decide not to be Stevonnie in a crucial moment, it surfaced a lot of strange thoughts within her. She needed to calm down. Breathe in, breathe out. Everything was fine. She was stable. All fusions were different, just as all relationships were different. Ruby and Sapphire were just more committed to being together than Steven and Connie were. That was completely fine. Garnet knew that. And goodness knows she preferred it this way, she did enjoy being herself after all.

            She didn’t know why Stevonnie’s rejection of fighting while fused hurt at all, but for now she had to put this aside. Peridot could strike again at any time, Malachite could resurface from the ocean at any time, Home World could attack at any time. She had to be ready, able, and secure when the time came.


	3. Peridot Returns, Minus One Foot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now it kicks off

            Peridot had been busy since the Crystal Gems had last seen her. The first thing she had done to keep busy was look for a replacement for her foot. She had assumed, incorrectly, that those clods either intentionally or accidently destroyed her original foot and had resigned herself to making a false one. One might have thought it would be easier to simply, well, poof back to her gem and create a new body. But Peridot didn’t always do the simple thing. Sometimes, she felt she needed to remind herself of the pains she went through to get a job done… at least until that job was done. In a way, she felt that by looking at the stump of a leg left she would be more motivated to defeat these vile defectors of Home World once and for all!

            Of course it was hard to walk with only one foot, so again, she had taken upon herself to find a temporary replacement. She had used rocks, bits of metal, but in the end had settled on an empty plastic Tupperware container she had found in a park left over from a picnic of some kind. She had been impressed with its flexibility, strength, maintenance of shape under heat and pressure, and had decided that out of all primitive technology on this piss poor planet this was… acceptable. Also it was the right shade of green to match the rest of her, which was a benefit to it.

            At any rate, once her replacement foot had been secured, Peridot realized that she would require allies to defeat her enemies. Unfortunately Malachite was at the bottom of the ocean and unreachable (she had tried). Home World was cut off from her without her modern technology. That left, as repulsive as it was, the malformed gem beasts that still crawled across this world in droves from the past wars that had taken place there thousands of years ago. Peridot had found a lot of nasty ones, but most of them were out of the way and beyond any form of control, or else were too weak to be of any real use in combat at least. She had found some that were at least good for being extra pairs of hands in working to rebuild some form of ship. It wasn’t that big, but it was at least enough to get her around this dumb planet faster now that her escape pod was demolished.

            It was while she was at a northern gem observatory and narrowly dodged several snake like heads emerging from the ice in her craft that she realised she could use this to her advantage! If she revealed her location, those clods would come running to attack, totally unknowing to the fact that a giant gem beast was under the ice! She wouldn’t NEED to control it! It was the PERFECT surprise attack!

            And so Peridot concocted her plan and sat down to wait. After all, it seemed whenever she stayed still too long they showed up so that should work out fine.

*

            “We have a lock on Peridot!” Pearl announced excitedly, running into the kitchen where Amethyst, Steven, and Connie were building the biggest sandwich ever while Garnet flipped through a magazine. On the outside she seemed disinterested but behind her sunglasses all three of her eyes were very focused on the article about how to grow hyacinths for reasons of her own. Her focus was so intense, in fact, that she didn’t realise Pearl had even entered the room until she was done the article and found Steven tugging on her arm.

            “Garnet! Can Connie come too? I know Peridot is dangerous, but you said yourself we could be stronger together, and since we know what monster we’re up against we can do that plan you and Amethyst worked out, and it would be a good field test?”

            “Please, Garnet? As long as I’m home for dinner I’m… I’m sure my parents won’t mind! I really want to help, that’s what all this training has been for, right?” Connie begged from nearby.

            Garnet was a little embarrassed for having gotten so involved with the article. She got too focused on something again. This was like that arcade game, she didn’t know why she had so much trouble with focusing on the wrong things! At least this article had a quick end to reach. She recovered her composure quickly and smiled at Steven.

            “Of course. Let’s get to the warp pad, but make sure you get your winter coats. There’s a spare for Connie. Pearl, you have a lock on Peridot’s location?”

            “Ah… yes, I just said that…” Pearl cleared her throat awkwardly.

            “Wow, you really like gardening, huh?” Amethyst laughed as they headed for the pad, Connie looking extremely excited, clutching at Rose’s sword.

            “I am so excited for this! Oh my gosh, can you believe it, Steven? I’m going to fight with the Crystal Gems! I mean, ooh, should I use a gem name too? Like a gem persona? A… a gemsona?”

            “Uh, I don’t think that’s necessary, I mean, I’m just Steven?” Steven pointed out as they started flying through space in the warp beam. It didn’t seem like Connie was listening, however.

            “I could be, um, Onyx! Or, or White Emerald! Or Green Jedite! Or-“ Connie continued listing gems to the awkwardly listening Crystal Gems (some of whom were remembering the gems that REALLY belonged to those names and cringing at bad memories)

            “Look, Connie, you really don’t need a gem…sona to fight with us,” Pearl said gently, though hesitantly as well as she wasn’t sure how to handle this suddenly desire of Connie’s.

            “After all, it’s not like you’re really a gem, you’re just a human!” Amethyst barked and Connie stumbled on her last word.

            “Or uh, b-black sapphire… o-o-or…” Connie trailed off, looking disheartened. Garnet hummed.

            “I don’t think there’s a Black Sapphire yet actually,” Garnet said, drawing surprised looks from everyone as they touched down in the Arctic Circle. Connie immediately grabbed at herself, shivering even through the coat provided for her.

            “Th-th-thank you,” Connie whispered, teeth chattering as the group shuffled out across the tundra toward the observatory, noting Peridot’s ramshackle ship perched on the top in plain sight.

            “What a dummy!” Amethyst chirped, “Anyway, I can juuuuust make out the hole where big, multi-headed and ugly took a dive last time. Think she’s going to show up again?”

            “Most likely,” Garnet said as she too spied the hole and began to calculate potential outcomes of different routes around or toward it, “However, this time we have a means to counter her attack. When the heads break through the surface of the ice hole and head towards us on the tundra, I need all four of you to run in opposite directions to draw the heads aside while I run to the middle and bind the necks together. Then, ideally, I need Opal and Stevonnie to form, for the sake of strength, have Stevonnie fight through any remaining heads while Opal takes aim at the gem on the beast’s body. It will possible remain in the water, so you may have to get directly next to the hole. Staying linked together will be your best chance of survival if you get hit, and especially if you fall in the water. For Connie, this is especially important. Once you are fused with Steven, you need to stay that way for your own protection. Do you understand?”

            “Yes ma’am,” Connie saluted, with Steven nodding furiously beside her.

            “Good. Alright, let’s move!” Garnet called out, but as the team made to begin running, a nasally laugh filled the air and all of them looked up to see Peridot using her hand to helicopter down from her ship.

            “Well, well, well! If it isn’t the CRYSTAL CLODS and the STEVEN! Bet you thought you’d just, WALTZ up here to the NORTH POLE and DESTROY me and BREAK MY STUFF again huh? Maybe you thought, just because you STOLE MY FOOT!” Peridot dramatically pointed to the plastic container currently serving as such, “Just because of THAT, beating me this time would be EASY? Maybe it would have been, if I wasn’t so OUTRAGEOUSLY CLEVER! Because, why would I fight you alone when I could just USE A GIANT GEM BEAST FROM THE SEA!”

            “So! You have harnessed the Hydra for your own nefarious purposes? It answers to you now?” Garnet asked, a bit worried. If that was the case, their plan might not-

            “Well I mean, not exactly harnessed… but I mean, it’s still super dangerous and- wait, how do YOU know it’s a Hydra?” Peridot said, looking confused. Garnet smirked.

            “That’s what I wanted to hear. THE PLAN IS STILL ON, MOVE!” Garnet took off, the other following behind even as a deafening roar sounded from down below. From the icy hole left from their previous encounter only the week before, a swarm of heads charged up, creating a freezing wave that managed to knock Peridot out of the sky as the heads charged the determined gems.

            “AH! Oh no, oh no! This was NOT the plan!” Peridot scrambled to her feet… or tried to, but while Tupperware had many merits it does not have much traction on snow and quickly slid out from under her. “OH GREAT! NOW EVEN THIS EARTH POLYMER IS BETRAYING ME!”

            “Watch out, Peridot!” Steven called out, though too late as Peridot was hit by a head and grabbed around the middle, lifted into the air as she screamed.

            “STICK TO THE PLAN, STEVEN!” Garnet yelled, and Steven, looking regretful, returned to running the same direction Connie was, just managing to shield her from a blow as she hacked a head. After a moment, the heads were dragged back though, and both Steven and Connie cheered to see Garnet dragging the necks together as she had promised.

            Connie and Steven turned and a quick, happy dance later resulted in Stevonnie running toward the belly of the beast. However, they paused to hear Peridot still shrieking above. Looking up, they could see Peridot struggling and noted that those teeth were dangerously sharp, and if it decided to chew, Peridot’s gem could be damaged, or broken!

            Making a quick decision, Stevonnie leapt high from the ground, making a perfect spinning sword swing and slicing cleanly through the head, which vanished and left Peridot to fall to the ground.

            “Are you okay?” Stevonnie asked Peridot, who let out a groan before shrieking again in Stevonnie’s direction and hobbling and sliding to get away. Stevonnie turned to see two heads diving at them.

            “Oh no!” Stevonnie shouted, dodging the heads and running to find Opal, who was in sight and too bust fighting off spare heads to be taking aim. Luckily Stevonnie managed to make it in time to start blocking hits. It looked like things would be okay.

            Garnet hoped it would be okay soon however, because as strong as she was this was A LOT of necks to hold together as she tried to ignore the twisted and weakened blows to her back.

            “Hurry up! St-steven… Pearl… Amethyst… Connie…” Garnet groaned as she clutched at the writhing mass.

            “HEY CLOD! BET YOU WERE EXPECTING THIS!” She heard Peridot’s voice behind her only faintly. It was when something hard and green hit her on the side of the head that her focus was broken and suddenly the strength of her arms failed her for an instant. An instant was all it took for the heads to break free and suddenly they were swarmed with them. Peridot was yelling again, likely caught up in more jaws. Garnet squinted to figure out what had hit her.

            A plastic green Tupperware container was on the ground.

            “You have _got_ to be kidding,” Garnet said flatly as she picked up the container, now looking through the mass of necks and heads and fighting her way through to reach her teammates. She could just see them, having abandoned their quest of shooting the beast in order to fight off the sudden army at their backs. Garnet winced to see Stevonnie so close to the edge of the hole, every blow to the shield shoving them closer to the edge, Garnet had to move faster and save them, Opal was distracted, Garnet had to-

            Suddenly, to Garnet’s shock, Stevonnie glowed and defused.

            “NO! DON’T!” They were too close to the edge! At these temperatures, if either fell in-

            But no, Steven kept the shield up and Connie slipped out from under, landing blow after blow on the creature as Steven watched her back, just as they had done a hundred times in practice. Garnet breathed a sigh of relief and caught up in time to catch the heads and haul them back a bit.

            “Quick you two! Bring back Stevonnie and go help Opal!”

            “Garnet, there’s too many heads! We’ll be better off fighting as two, this way!” Steven said quickly and he and Connie both ran away in their fragile forms to defend Opal. Garnet’s eyes widened.

            “STEVEN!” Garnet admonished, horrified that he would disobey direct orders at a time like this!

            “IT’LL BE ALRIGHT!” Steven insisted as they caught up with Opal and began to defend her on both sides. However, even then it wasn’t quite enough, and Garnet had her hands full on the other side of the hole. Then, to her horror, Opal nodded at Steven and defused as well! Now Pearl was helping defend the hole and… Amethyst had dived under! She had gone under- NO!

            “NO! Wait!” Garnet gasped. She couldn’t think, her focus lost and suddenly necks had surrounded her, binding her as effectively as she had bound them- maybe more so. “Urgh!”

            “GARNET!” Steven screamed from across the hole, “YOU HAVE TO TURN INTO RUBY AND SAPPHIRE! YOU’LL BE ABLE TO GET FREE!”

            “I-I,” Garnet hesitated, was that really best? No, last time she had broken up in battle against this creature Ruby and Sapphire had… and Steven had almost… no, no she had to break free herself! She could do it! She was confident, strong, st-stable-

            The necks tightened. Garnet saw a set of jaws reaching for her…

            “OH MY GOSH!” Connie screamed from across the hole as they saw the two gems fly into the air, landing in the snow on opposite sides. Only by luck did Amethyst then succeed in getting a strangle hold on the beast’s gem heart with her teeth and tore it out, sending it away. The Hydra heads vanished, and Connie ran to grab Sapphire’s gem while Steven picked up Ruby’s, which had landed closer. He ran back to Pearl as Amethyst resurfaced nearer to Connie, coughing a bit. All of them were worn out.

            “Well, at least we beat it!” Steven huffed.

            “Yeah, but you didn’t beat ME! And hey, looks like my fake foot redeemed itself after all! A true double agent! Bet you all didn’t expect your precious PLASTIC to turn on you!” Peridot laughed, now somehow piloting her ship above them.

            “Um, what is she talking about?” Connie asked Amethyst, who shrugged.

            “AND NOW, I WILL, uh, I WILL KIDNAP YOUR HUMAN FRIEND! And uh, THEN YOU WONT FOLLOW ME ANYMORE! Or uh, OR ELSE! Yeah,” Peridot fumbled with controls as Amethyst quickly stepped in front of Connie and Pearl and Steven began to run toward them. But the battle had taken its toll, and all of them were slower than usual. A force field encapsulated Connie, Amethyst and Sapphire’s gem, carrying them up to the ship as it quickly took off, Peridot’s laughter fading into the distance. Pearl and Steven were left gaping after it.

            “N-no way, NO WAY!” Steven screamed as Pearl stared from where the ship disappeared on the horizon back down to Ruby’s discarded gem.

            This… this was very, very bad.


	4. Separation Anxiety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dealing with the loss of half of yourself is hard, but sometimes you need to keep track of the bigger picture.

            Pearl and Steven had only one option; head back to the warp pad and try to use Pearl’s tracking device to find Peridot once she stopped moving. Once arriving, Pearl in anxious silence while Steven pretty much voiced aloud every fear in her heart in his panicked ramblings, Pearl set the Ruby Gem on the table and got to work.

            “What should I do? Without Garnet, how will we know things will work out? What about… WHAT ABOUT CONNIE’S PARENTS?!” Steven screamed and Pearl’s eyes widened considerably.

            “Oh, uh, alright Steven, while I track Peridot, I need you to keep an eye on Ruby until she regenerates, it might take a little longer than usual for her since she had to do it so recently, and also to call Connie’s parents and explain the situation.”

            Steven nodded and ran to grab the phone, before pausing and looking at Pearl a bit unsure of himself. “You want me to tell Connie’s parents that we brought Connie to the arctic to fight a hydra and she got kidnapped by a dangerous alien who intends to allow all life on earth to be destroyed and we can only track them if she slows down long enough for the tracker to identify her location?”

            “Um,” Pearl cleared her throat, “Maybe just tell them she’s sleeping over?”

            “But Connie’s parents only let her sleep over places if they have at LEAST a week’s notice!”

            “I don’t have time to figure this out with you Steven! Just, come up with something! You’re creative, right?” Pearl said hurriedly as she turned back to the tracker, watching it intently as Steven fumbled dialling the number of Connie’s house. Her mother picked up.

            “ _Hello? Is this Connie? Do you need us to pick you up?”_

            “Uh, act-“

            “ _Connie, I’m very sorry about imposing this, but could you ask Steven’s uh… guardians? If they would mind terribly letting you stay the night? Your father’s had an accident-“_

“What?!”

            “ _Nothing to worry about! He fell down the front stairs and broke his ankle, but he’ll be fine… you know how he is about hospitals though, so I need to stay with him and given the state of Beach City hospital it will likely take into the night to get him finished up. I was actually about to call about this, but could you ask?”_

“Uh,” Steven cleared his throat and spoke in a somewhat higher voice, “Su-sure! Steven!” Steven schooled his voice back to normal, “Yeah, I heard her on the phone. My uh, guardians, say that’s fine! And they hope your dad feels better!”

            “ _Oh good! Well, you’re father is screaming in pain again so I need to handle that. Goodbye, see you tomorrow, make sure you brush your teeth before bed!”_

            “Okay, bye!” Steven said hurriedly and hung up the phone. “Huh, convenient.”

            Continuing the theme of convenience, a moment later Ruby’s gem began to glow and the shape of the gem started to form. Steven watched in awe as the Ruby took a breath upon her feet hitting the floor. There was a second of calm before her head immediately darted up and started looking around frantically.

            “Where’s Sapphire? Did she get hurt? Is she in a healing chamber? STEVEN!” Ruby rounded on Steven who squeaked as his shoulders were grabbed hard, “STEVEN! You need to help me find Sapphire RIGHT NOW! We need Garnet to stop the Home World army, they could come at any time! Well, that’s what Sapphire thinks, and she’s usually right about these things, you need to help us fuse again as fast as possible!”

            “Uh, thing about THAT is, um…” Steven coughed a little, “Well, Sapphire is uh…”

            “WHERE IS SHE?!” Ruby screamed.

            “WE DON’T KNOW!” Steven screamed back.

            Ruby’s eye twitched. Her shoulders shook. A low whine started to come from somewhere deep in her throat.

            Steven also whined. “Um, my shoulders are GETTINGCRUSHEDSTOP!”

            “S-sorry,” Ruby stammered out, releasing her hold on Steven’s shoulders only to wrap her arms just as tightly around herself. “S-so, when you say you don’t know, do you mean she went off on her own? Is she following up on a vision of the future? Does she have a plan?”

            Steven scratched at the back of his head. “Well actually, she was kidnapped by Peridot, along with Connie and Amethyst, but I mean they’re probably fi-INE! AH!” Steven shouted as Ruby got back in his face and started shouting over him.

            “WHAT?! SHE’S KIDNAPPED?! YOU LET HER GET KIDNAPPED?!”

            “Woah! We didn’t LET her get kidnapped! Why would we want that to happen? We care about both of you!”

            “ARGH! That’s not what I meant! PEARL! Where’s- PEARL!” Ruby caught a glimpse of Pearl who was still concentrating on the screen but also wincing slightly as she frequently glanced in their direction.

            “Oh, uh, Ruby, good to see you back to your old self! Now not to worry, I’m almost positive that Peridot has got to stop moving soon, and as soon as she does, we’ll get her!”

            “That’s not GOOD ENOUGH!” Ruby screamed, stamping her foot and shutting her eyes. After a moment though, she opened them and saw that Pearl and Steven were staring at her with a mixture of concern and pity and… urgh, she hadn’t wanted THAT! She took a breath and willed her shakes away as much as she could. “L-look, I only mean- I mean that there’s no telling what Peridot could do to Sapph- to ANY of them in the time it takes her to stop. Heck, she has an entire ship now, potentially, she doesn’t HAVE to stop, right? So we can’t just WAIT, we need to figure out where she went!”

            “Alright I see your point, but how are we supposed to do that?” Pearl asked with a frown. Steven, surprisingly, started jumping and making excited sounds before running up to his room and coming back with a large piece of paper and crayons.

            “I know! Connie told me she did this in school! It’s called BRAINSTORMING with a WORD WEB!”

            “Er, really?” Pearl said with a note of uncertainty.

            “Yeah! See, we write something in the middle, like, places-peridot-could-be,” he drew a quick doodle that could be Peridot’s head in the centre of the paper and drew a circle around it, “Then we write places we think she could be around that, like… THE BIG DONUT!” Steven drew a donut near the head and a line between it and Peridot’s head. “And then we write reasons she would go there near that, like, because she wants donuts!” Steven drew another donut and connected it to the first donut. “And then, whatever place has the most reasons why she would go to it, we can check out that place first!”

            “Steven, I’m not sure that’s the most _efficient_ way to-“

            “Places, places, ah! The old Kindergarten, to reactivate it and start sucking the life from the planet and retrieve her new gem tech! Um, the old Strawberry Field War Grounds where she could scavenge for weapons! The bottom of the sea where she could find Malachite… WITH SAPPHIRE’S HELP! SHE COULD TORTURE SAFFY TO FIND MALACHITE! We need to ACT!”

            “Well, that wouldn’t help anyway, not even Garnet could find Malachite and she searched for days!” Pearl reminded gently. Ruby pulled at her hair.

            “But Peridot doesn’t know that and that makes it WORSE! She could just torture her forever and wouldn’t be able to get the information out of her!”

            “Um, well it looks like the Kindergarten has the most reasons she would go there,” Steven said as he consulted his chart that had two lines coming from a bunch of rocks, one pointing at a laser gun and the other at a tiny Amethyst with a baby bottle.

            “No! No no no, we need to go to the ocean! If that’s where she’s gone, Saffy will be in danger!”

            “Well, if she went to the Kindergarten the earth will be in danger too,” Pearl pointed out.

            “Hey! I’m still the leader, aren’t I? Well, er, half of the leader… whatever! I’m SURE that’s where Peridot must have gone! She wouldn’t contact Home World again with Lapis and Jasper both missing, and it would be easier to combat us if she had help, that’s why she was looking for gem beasts right? There, three reasons, let’s go!”

            “Well actually I think those fall under the category of the first reason- orwecouldjustgo!” Steven rushed as Ruby grabbed him and Pearl and headed for the door. As the screen door slammed shut behind them though, a flashing light lit Pearl’s tracking device, not that anyone was left to notice…

            “Aw, I wish Sapphire was here!” Ruby moaned as she ran. She had to get to the ocean, and once she searched that she’ll have to try the Kindergarten she guessed, and the Strawberry Field and… SHE WOULD CHECK THE WHOLE WORLD IF SHE HAD TO, SHE COULDN’T JUST WAIT!

*

            Connie had not enjoyed being forced down a hallway in a tractor beam, both her sword and Sapphire’s gem being taken from her as she was thrown into a cell and a screen of light filled the entrance while Amethyst was pushed still further away. Connie had originally reached toward the light screen, but had chickened out of touching it at the last minute. After all, this cell was designed to hold beings as powerful and immortal as the Crystal Gems! Imagine what it might do to her if she touched that force field? She could be killed, or… or lose a limb, or all her memories! She really had no idea, and so she stayed curled against the back of the cell.

            Why had she thought she could help Steven and the Gems? She was just a little human girl. She was getting better with the sword, sure, but she would never really be at their level. She wasn’t a gem. She was just… Connie. She was only worth anything because she could fuse with Steven, but even that wasn’t really enough was it? She only got in the way, and now she was a hostage, left to wait for the Gems to rescue her. That’s not what she wanted!

            But… was she really not even going to try? Connie slowly got to her feet and approached the screen again. It was true… that she wasn’t as strong as the gems, but that didn’t mean she had to give up, right? After all, she hadn’t even TRIED to escape! That said, she wouldn’t be reckless about it either. Digging into her pocket, she pulled out her glasses frames and hesitantly held them out toward the screen, ready to dart back in an instant if they started to disintegrate or lit up with lightning. But they seemed to pass through alright. Feeling a little bolder but still not ready to go all out, she grabbed a bit off her hair to test if it worked only on organic matter. But no, her hair was fine too. Holding out a finger now and squeezing her eyes shut, she knew she had to be the next test subject.

            Nothing. She opened her eyes. Her hand was outside, but she felt nothing. Her hand blocked the light below it just like a simple lamp. That… really didn’t make any sense. Unless…

            Connie stepped through the light quickly, patting herself down. She was alright. She still remembered what she ate for breakfast and her 7th birthday party.

            “Huh, I guess it must only work on gems. Weird. Oh! That means I can help! Oh my gosh, I might be the ONLY one who can help!” Connie straightened up as tall as possible with a determined expression. “Don’t worry Amethyst, Sapphire, Black Sapphire is coming to save you!” Connie giggled excitedly to herself then, and hurried down the hall in the direction she had seen Amethyst being taken.

            Amethyst had not taken imprisonment well. She had immediately taken out her whip and started slamming it against the walls and gem destabilizing field, but all that had done was scratch at the metal and zap parts of her weapon out of existence in the destabilizer. Then she started throwing herself instead, which lead to a headache. Finally she was left huddled on the ground with shock pains wracking her body as well. This would not be as easy as she thought. But with Sapphire stuck in her gem and Connie being, well, _human_ , she was the only one who could get them out of this! She couldn’t give up!

            After a while, she heard running footsteps approaching her cell and she coughed, climbing to her feet and trying to appear calm and cool as destabilizing shivers racked her body every couple of seconds.

            “So! Come to take a few swings at the prisoner, huh? Well, I hope you’re not expecting an easy time of it, because I am ALWAYS ready to ru-RUMBLE!” Amethyst had gotten too close to the destabilizer and was zapped backwards again.

            “Uh, Amethyst?”

            “Connie? Woah, how did you escape? Maybe you’re more badass then I thought! I mean, I always knew you were badass for a human, but you have to be pretty hard core to break out of a gem cell all on your own!” Amethyst snorted, getting to her feet.

            “Actually, it wasn’t all that hard. Here,” Connie said as she reached toward the force field.

            “Woah! Watch out for that, you’re no gem-“ Amethyst shut up as Connie’s arm blocked the stream of light without any noticeable effects. “HEY! You’re no gem, so the destabilizer doesn’t affect you! Awesome!” Amethyst laughed as she passed under Connie’s arm and gave her a slap on the back that sent her stumbling. “I guess you’re pretty useful after all, huh?”

            “Hah, I guess,” Connie grinned, “Now we just need to find Sapphire!”

            “And Rose’s sword, or else Pearl will throw a fit when we get back,” Amethyst said as they continued down the hall, noting the temperature starting to drop around them. That was a good sign in this case she supposed.

            Sapphire had reformed completely alone in a cell for the second time in only a few months. This wasn’t expected, and for her this was a real blow. She knew, of course, that this was a possibility but it was not one of the most likely ones and it was not pleasant to deal with now. That said, she knew that panicking would not help, nor would losing her cool. She had to stay calm, collected, she could not panic.

            She said quietly in her cell in the centre as ice slowly began to surround her, crawling up the walls and hanging from the ceiling as icicles. She was fine. Everything would be fine. Ruby was definitely looking for her. She knew that, given everyone’s positions at the time of her destabilizing, it was most likely that Peridot had only captured herself, possibly Amethyst, and certainly either Steven or Connie. If Steven or Connie had been captured, they could easily escape their cell. If it had been Steven he would have arrived approximately ten minutes ago, meaning it was either Connie coming to get her or Steven had been delayed by Peridot’s technology. But if it IS Connie, she will be here in three… two… one…

            “SAPPHIRE!”

            “Hello, Connie. I knew you would be coming.”

            “Wow, so you’re Sapphire! I mean, Steven showed me a picture he drew of you, but it’s great to meet you in person!”

            “Hey Sapph, uh, are you okay?”

            “Hello, Amethyst. I’m fine. Connie will release me, and we will escape, and with Ruby aiming to rescue me we should reform in all possible futures.”

            “Er, great, but just so you know you’ve kind of made an ice cave? Are you sure you’re okay?”

            Sapphire cleared her throat a little. “It’s… part of the plan.”

            “The plan,” Amethyst said skeptically as she folded her arms and raised an eyebrow.

            “Yes,” Sapphire said resolutely. Though on the inside she was in rather a state of panic, to her shame. She had to keep herself calm. She had to make sure everyone remained calm and worked things out logically, there was no point in acting until all possible routes had been considered. By telling the others that she had a plan, they would be more likely to wait until she had figured out the best course of action. Amethyst was used to this, and Connie would-

            “We don’t have time for this plan!” Connie shouted as she darted into the cell, grabbed Sapphire, and pretty much used the protesting gem as a sled to skate out of there. Once in the hall, she helped Sapphire up quickly. “Sorry, but I hear someone coming! Let’s go!” Connie whispered loudly and both gems nodded, a little shocked, and followed Connie down the hall.

            Sapphire hadn’t heard the footsteps approaching. She had to pay more attention, she _knew_ that, but… oh, this would be so much easier if Ruby was with her! She bit her lip as they rounded a corner… and her heart sank when they came face to face with Peridot.

            “Seriously? You broke out AGAIN?!”

            Sapphire swallowed. At least, if they were about to be captured again, she had more time to consider the possible futures. That… that was really for the best… right?


	5. A Different Tactic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we go

Steven and Pearl were sitting in a boat out on the bay. Steven was looking up at the stars in the sky, wondering if Connie had eaten anything yet, and if Amethyst and Sapphire were keeping her safe. He knew she could take care of herself, but she was still… well, a human? And that was great! It was really, really great. But as Pearl reminded him constantly before missions she was a part of… she was also fragile. If the gems were hit too hard they poofed into their rocks and came back soon after. But Connie… wouldn’t. Well, technically, Stephen had no idea if he would do that either, but at least he would instinctually make a very powerful shield for himself, which was good. Connie…. Connie was just…

            It wasn’t something he had thought of immediately, but now seeing Ruby freaking out about Sapphire who was as seemingly indestructible as the other gems, Stephen began to wonder if Garnet had been right all along. If he had stayed fused as Stevonnie, he and Connie would still be together now, right? Maybe they could have been faster, fast enough to grab both Ruby and Sapphire before Peridot snagged them. Maybe she wouldn’t have snagged anyone, she had taken Connie because she was human, right? They would have been stronger as Stevonnie. Maybe they could’ve… maybe…

            “Urgh! We are wasting so much time! I knew we should have just waited at the scanner, but… well, Ruby might be half of Garnet but she ISN’T Garnet on her own, and she isn’t able to lead on her own OBVIOUSLY! What is she thinking, scrounging on the ocean floor, as if that ramshackle spacecraft Peridot made could have made it down there ANYWAY!” Pearl fretted, staring at the slight rise of steam that moved around not far from where the boat was, indicating that Ruby was below them.

            Pearl’s outburst snapped Steven from his unhelpful thoughts. He looked up at her with wide, determined eyes, instead. “Well, I think Ruby knows what she’s doing! I mean, she and Sapphire have this… connection, right? They know where the other one is-“

            “They know because they SHARE A BODY STEVEN! If they aren’t fused, they have as much of a chance of “knowing” where the other one is as you and Connie!”

            “Well, I know where Connie is!” Steven said boldly. Pearl blinked.

            “You… do?”

            “Yep!” Steven nodded smugly, “She’s with Amethyst and Sapphire on Peridot’s ship!”

            Pearl’s eyelids lowered and her eyebrow twitched. “And where is that?”

            Steven shrugged and made a sound that resembled “I dunno.” Pearl buried her eyes in her fist.

            “Right. Okay. Well, at any rate, if Ruby isn’t finished down there in the next ten minutes, we’ve going back to shore to check on the scanner again. I doubt Ruby would be much help even if she was there.”

            As Pearl spoke, Steven noticed a stream of bubbles and heavier steam reaching the surface from behind her and pointed excitedly. “Pearl! Look!”

            Pearl turned and looked relieved. “Oh good, well, it’s about time! Steven, help me grab the oar to lift her out.”

            “Uh, Pearl?”

            “Yes, Steven?”

            “There’s bubbles over here, too.”

            “What?” Pearl hurried over and saw that… all around the boat, Steven was right, a torrent of bubbles and steam were rising. In fact, it was starting to rock the boat. “Oh my goodness!” Pearl snatched up the oars and started rowing frantically toward the shoreline.

            _“Steven?”_ a voice echoed in Steven’s head.

            “Lapis?”

            “ _Steven, get out of here! Something woke us, I cant hold myself down!”_

            A rippling and a sudden barrage of waves rose from the sea. Pearl stopped rowing and yelped as the waves pushed the boat quickly shoreward, throwing them onto the beach and sending them sailing face first into the sand. Steven coughed the water from his lungs while Pearl desperately scrambled to her feet, pulling out her sword and aiming it at the towering figure that was steadily emerging from the water.

            With another swell of water, a small red figure was thrown onto the shore beside them. “Urgh, okay, so, that didn’t go as planned…” Ruby spat out as she struggled to her feet beside Steven.

            “Ruby? What happened?” Steven asked frantically as he summoned his shield as Malachite started to approach the shore.

            “Er, I kind of found this crevasse that Garnet didn’t want to go down before because she didn’t think it was safe, but I mean, I had to go check in case Saffy… but I mean, I don’t swim that well and I might not have been able to get back out so I just… sent a fireball for light… er, but obviously that didn’t work underwater but sort of steamed out a bunch of water and I heard a roar and well… I… I AM SO SORRY, STEVEN!” Ruby wailed as Malachite’s hand slammed down beside them.

            “THERE ISN’T TIME FOR THAT! EITHER BE HELPFUL OR GET OUT OF HERE!” Pearl yelled, and Ruby flinched. Still, she summoned a fireball and threw it at the giant fusion… not that it did much good other than enrage the creature further.

            “ **RIDICULOUS CRYSTAL GEMS! YOU ARE PUNY AND WEAK, AND DIVIDED! YOU CANNOT HOPE TO FACE ME, A FUSION! YOU ARE USELESS UNLESS YOU ARE DESPERATELY TRYING TO GAIN POWER BY JAMMING YOURSELF TOGETHER**!”

            “WELL WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING RIGHT NOW?!” Ruby screamed, “HYPOCRITE! ANYWAY, YOU ARE THE WORST KIND OF FUSION! HALF OF YOU DOESN’T EVEN WANT TO BE A PART OF YOU! YOU HATE YOURSELF! YOU THINK YOU CAN BE STRONG LIKE THAT?! FUSION NEEDS RESPECT AND LOVE! YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT IS!”

            “ **YOU ARE WEAK, AND LOVE IS ONLY WEAKNESS, AND THE ONLY RESPECT IS FOR POWER! FUSION IS ABOUT POWER AND WAR! I WILL TEACH YOU THIS WITH YOUR DESTRUCTION**!”

            “I-!” Ruby shut her eyes, tears forming. “I wish… I could show you the power of fusion… but you…” Ruby swallowed, and in the most defeated voice whispered, “You took Saffy away…”

            Steven and Pearl were startled by Ruby’s tears, but Steven recovered first.

            “FUSE WITH PEARL!” Steven shouted.

            “What?” Ruby sniffed.

            “Wh-what?” Pearl’s eyes widened. She looked a mix of apprehensive and excited at the prospect.

            “YOU WONT HAVE THE CHANCE!” Malachite wailed, slamming a foot down and blocked onto just by Steven’s force field… which was already cracking.

            “I-I can’t fuse without Saffy… I’ve NEVER fused without her, I don’t… it will feel like a betrayal!” Ruby insisted, holding her head. Outside the bubble Pearl was desperately trying to distract Malachite enough to stop the assault on Steven’s pink defense shield.

            “Uh, well, I mean, I don’t know that much about fusion? I’ve only ever fused with Connie, and all I really know is that it feels kind of weird but kind of fun? But I’m pretty sure that Pearl and you would probably be able to fuse better than me and Pearl and honestly I think if I fused with Pearl it would feel weird, but I mean, Sardonyx was cool, I know that whoever you are when you fuse will be able to stand a better chance against Malachite than us all fighting alone! This is one enemy, and well, she needs a bit of… force?” Steven winced. Ruby was staring at him with wide eyes now.

            “Steven… I-I’m sorry I-“

            “We REALLY don’t have time!” Steven cried as the shield verged on shattering. Luckily, seconds before that Pearl had managed to leap up Malachite’s body and lodged her sword into one of her eyes, making the creature rear back and Ruby and Steven were quick to run beside Pearl again.

            “RUBY! FUSE WITH PEARL NOW!” Steven yelled, “MALACHITE IS STILL IN PAIN!”

            “W-well, do you want to-?” Pearl asked carefully. Ruby bit her lip and rubbed at her shoulder.

            “I-I… yes, we have to, you know? So we can beat… YES JUST DO IT!”

            With that, Ruby grabbed Pearl’s hand and pulled her in. Within moments they were in an awkward box-step waltz. It seemed Ruby was determined but still extremely uneasy, and Pearl’s growing frustration wasn’t helping.

            “Oh, this isn’t working, just let me lead!” Pearl grabbed up Ruby and it turned more into an elegant tango. Elegant but still not quite… working? There were a few instances where they started to glow… but every time Ruby would jolt backward and Pearl would get more and more upset.

            “IF YOU DON’T WANT TO FUSE, JUST SAY SO!” she cried.

            “NO I DO! I do but… BUT I WANT TO FUSE WITH SAPPHIRE!” Ruby cried and Pearl dropped her hands in disgust.

            “Well, Sapphire isn’t here! I am! And Steven- STEVEN!”

            Ruby turned sharply in time to see Malachite rise behind Steven and slam a long arm into him, sending him sailing into the air.

            “NO!” Ruby shrieked and without thinking began to run. Not this time. She couldn’t let Steven get hurt because of her, Pearl wouldn’t get there in time, SHE COULD BE FAST!

            Ruby’s body heated and a flash of flame stretched out before her, the sand melting together into a sheer glass surface. She slid across it at gathering speed, no thought on anything but the sailing boy above her. With a last push she launched herself from the edge of her glassy field and into the air, snatching Steven from the air and landing with her body shielding him from the last blow.

            “Garnet?” Steven whispered, looking rattled. Ruby sniffled, relieved he was alive. Okay.

            “Half-right there, kiddo,” Ruby giggled, wiping her eyes. She glanced back at Pearl, fighting Malachite who was now laughing and edging toward the town and the gathered onlookers. Why did humans feel the need to stare when aliens fought each other?

            “Ruby? Why couldn’t you and Pearl fuse?” Steven asked quietly, drawing Ruby’s attention back to him.

            “It… it’s my fault. Honestly? I never liked fusion at all before Sapphire. Being touched just… bothers me. But the first time Sapphire touched me, it was during a training exercise, and steam came out between us because she was so cold and I was so hot at the time. And then later, I found her in her meditation room, and asked her to hold hands and we just watched the steam. At first I was just fascinated but by the end… I was in love. And when we fused for the first time? I learned what it was like to want to be near someone all the time. I don’t like being touched, but I loved to touch her.”

            “Well, uh, not that this isn’t actually awesome and I definitely want to hear about this, I don’t think Pearl can hold off Malachite much longer?”

            “And that’s my fault too!” Ruby sobbed out. “I can’t bear to touch other gems, not without Sapphire, so I can’t fuse, and I can’t help, and if I hadn’t been so obsessed with being with Sapphire maybe we would have saved everyone by now, but I just made it all worse by acting without thinking!”

            “You’re not obsessed with Sapphire! Well, maybe just a little about staying fused but, that’s just because you’re scared! I get it! I mean, I get scared about Connie being away from me too! But you know what? I’m sure she’s okay by herself. Because I trust her, and I know how strong she is. You know Sapphire is strong too, right? Garnet wouldn’t be as amazing as she is if you both weren’t equally amazing!”

            Ruby stared as Steven got to her feet and held out a hand to her.

            “As for touching well…” he cleared his throat, “You just were touching me… right?”

            “I… you’ve only ever fused with Connie, though? What if we… can’t?”

            In that moment, Malachite released a beam of energy at the people on the beach, causing them to scream and scatter. Steven grabbed Ruby’s hand and pulled her to her feet.

            “We don’t have time to think about it, right now, we need to act!”

            Ruby took only a second to be surprised before she chanced a smile and nodded. Steven started, linking arms as they turned in a circle. Ruby turned as well, looking unsure at first. They switched arms and turned the other way. Then there was an explosion and Ruby glanced over, concentration broken.

            “Don’t worry about the fight, just… have fun?” Steven suggested. They switched arms and moved faster. And faster. Steven stumbled and Ruby let out a startled laugh. Switch arms. Turn. Switch arms. Turn. A simple dance, but the laughter grew, and suddenly a glow swelled between them, shining bright enough that Malachite turned away from the crowd to shield her eyes…

*

            Luckily, Amethyst was not inclined towards freezing in any circumstances. While Peridot baffled at their escape, Amethyst pulled her whip from her gem and lashed out, wrapping around Peridot’s good leg (she had replaced her foot again, this time with a bit of metal as she lacked any other plastic pieces and wouldn’t trust them anymore either after the horrible betrayal of the Tupperware container in the Arctic. At any rate, Amethyst was very effective and Peridot was tossed to one side. Connie grabbed Sapphire’s wrist, wincing at how cold it was as she began to run with her down the hall, Amethyst at their heels.

            “Uh, are you ok-kay to run on y-your own?” Connie asked, teeth starting to chatter.

            “Oh! Yes, I’m sorry,” Sapphire pulled away, quickly stretching her future vision ahead of her and quickly began leading the group. “We should find our way to the control room this way and then I can lead the ship back to Beach City.”

            “That’s great! I… hope my parents aren’t too worried,” Connie frowned as they rounded a corner. They found themselves in what could be the center of the ship, with six hallways branching off.

            “So, which one leads to the control room?” Amethyst asked Sapphire, who had gone quite silent.

            “Technically, any of these pathways could eventually lead us to the control room. I am evaluating all of them, to find out which will be the most efficient.”

            “Uh… can you do that faster?” Connie asked as she could hear footsteps running and getting closer… rather quickly.

            “It is advantageous to reach the control room quickly. I have it down between these two paths, but each of them has at least one fork, and I need to see if there’s potentially a quicker route-“

            “THERE ISN’T TIME FOR THIS!” Amethyst screamed and snatched both Sapphire and Connie up from the floor, to protests, “PICK A DOOR, ANY DOOR!”

            “How about you just STOP RIGHT THERE?” Peridot’s voice came from behind them as a group of monsters stormed inside the empty space, encircling the Crystal Gems and Connie and blocking every exit.

            “Damn it,” Amethyst growled, dropping Connie and Sapphire before shoving the former behind her. “You stay between us, Connie.”

            “I can fight!” Connie insisted.

            “You don’t have Rose’s sword! You aren’t going to be able to help like this.”

            “But-“

            “Amethyst is right, you aren’t a gem-“

            “I KNOW I’M NOT A GEM! I know okay? Okay? I’m just a human! I guess I’ll just sit here helplessly while you two save me, then!”

            “That would be best,” Sapphire nodded, turning to the beasts with ice swirling around her. On Connie’s other side, Amethyst cracked her whip. In seconds, both of them were waging war, and Connie was left looking at both with a disheartened expression.

            That was until Peridot flung a small grenade like object into the fray and both Sapphire and Amethyst had to stop as they started to… phase in and out of view, as far as Connie could tell. They both grabbed at themselves and shrieked.

            “A- a bomb that causes gem destabilization, I saw this, but I didn’t think Peridot would use it… so soon…” Sapphire groaned. Connie, of course, unaffected, grabbed the bomb and threw it hard at the gem beasts. Two of them were hit full on and vanished, collapsing in on themselves and revealing a few shards of gem within.

            “They… more forced fusions… punishment for the rebellion…” Sapphire deflated quickly at the sight of them. “I knew… I knew what fate awaited those who rebelled… I should have done more… I should have-“

            “Um, hello? Connie just gave us an opening!” Amethyst pointed out as Peridot hurried to deactivate the destabilizing field now that it was proven useless to her, and the other beasts were not attacking while they awaited orders. “If we fuse, I know we can take them all out! What do you say, Sapphire? We won’t be Sugalite, but I know we’ll still kick butt!”

            “I don’t… I don’t think that will end well’” Sapphire said quickly. A blush spread across her face as she looked away.

            “Aw, well if you’re sure…” Amethyst kicked at the ground.

            “Sapphire, are you saying that because you actually don’t think it will work, or because you don’t want to fuse without Ruby?” Connie asked sharply.

            “I- w-what, what do you mean? How would you-“

            Connie flushed and coughed a little, “Well I mean, you’re always fused with Ruby, even when you fuse with others, it must be weird to fuse without her?”

            “Uh, guys?”

            “In a second, Amethyst!” Connie huffed, “And well, I know it’s probably going to be hard, but you need to just… do it?”

            “I… still don’t know if it’s going to work… also, to be honest,” Sapphire’s voice dropped, “Amethyst’s fusions tend to get out of control unless it’s with Pearl, even with Rose Quartz-“

            “I CAN HEAR YOU! Also, Tanzanite is THE COOLEST FUSION EVER! But to my point-“

            “Amethyst, Tanzanite nearly exploded an entire city,” Sapphire sighed, “If we did manage to fuse, there is a very likely chance Connie could be hurt.”

            “I guess, but-“

            “And anyway, Connie-“

            “OH HELL WITH IT!” the sounds of battle ensued while Sapphire and Connie kept talking.

            “Connie, I know you think fusing with Amethyst will solve our problems, but it isn’t that simple. This isn’t a case where pure power will help. Unfortunately, my future vision allows me to the consequences of my own failings. I know I take too long thinking and discussing things. That’s why we’re in this situation now. Ruby was always what drove me to act, and yet… even knowing this I find myself terrified to make the wrong decision. I’m not like Ruby, I fused with others before her, but every time I did they would get… frozen up? Because of me. Ruby was the only one with the fire to act even as the fear of futures yet to come would try to freeze her. If I were to fuse with someone, it would need to be a gem with the inner fire to see the future and not fixate on it.”

            “Well, whatever future we have, we won’t see it if we don’t beat Peridot now! You need to act, Sapphire! You need to be like Ruby, be like Garnet, and pick a path to follow!” Connie cried, and Sapphire paused, cocking her head to one side.

            “I did not think it would work but… perhaps?” she said distantly.

            “What?!” Connie asked, getting a little upset. Not as upset as Amethyst was that she had to fight six gem beasts on her own and keep them away from the two chatterheads in the middle of them, but upset none the less.

            “Connie, it might not work, but… I see…” suddenly, Sapphire grinned widely, grasping at Connie’s shoulders, “I see a future where we can fuse!”

            “Who can fuse?” Connie blinked.

            “Us! Me and you!”

            “W-wait, what? But… that’s not possible, I’m human! I mean, I fused with Steven, but that’s because he’s part human! Didn’t Greg and Rose Quartz try to fuse but it didn’t-“

            “Of course they couldn’t!” Sapphire looked far too excited now, “None of us thought they could, Rose Quartz certainly didn’t, there needs to be at least some sort of belief it’s possible, I mean, it’s unlikely, and it’s WILDLY dangerous!”

            “D-dangerous?”

            “I mean, we could end up unable to separate, or you could lose parts of your organic form painfully, or I could end of getting lodged into your body like Rose Quartz is with Steven-“ Sapphire paused, “I never realised that was what happened before… huh, well, ANYWAY, the point is that, you’re absolutely right Connie! We need to pick a path, and defeating these creatures is the only way out, and if I want anything, if I want to see Ruby and Steven… there’s only one sure way to victory and that is if we try this AND SUCCEED!”

            “I-I…” Connie stammered, looking from Sapphire to the gem beasts and Amethyst… getting beaten backwards now. She imagined getting stuck fused with Sapphire… or painfully losing body parts… she winced. Still, she knew she signed up for this. She wanted to save the world. And so… maybe this was the way.

            “Yeah, okay,” Connie smiled shakily, “Worth a try, right?”

            With a brighter smile, Sapphire snatched up Connie’s hands and in moments led them in twirls around the room, dodging beasts on the way. Amethyst looked at them as though they were crazy to even be trying something like this. Connie could barely see the beasts as she focused on Sapphire. After a while, Connie even started to get into it. The twirling was pretty fun after all, and a giggle snuck out as Connie took a turn at leading, swinging Sapphire around for a dip. The blue gem’s hair fell back, revealing her one giant eye. Connie’s eyes widened in shock, but she recovered quickly, giving an awkward laugh before she pulled her up and danced across the room again. Sapphire lifted her up and Connie looked down at her, and a blush filled her cheeks as a warm feeling gathered within her, one she usually felt with only one other person.

            “No way,” Amethyst breathed as the room seemed to still, a soft glow filling the space…


	6. Pizzas and Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And here it ends. Probably no sequel. We will see.

            On the beach, in front of a crowd, the glow faded. Pearl stood gaping openly.

            “I… I don’t believe it. Steven and Ruby, fused? How does THAT even work? Ruby isn’t organic!” Pearl fretted. Malachite looked far angrier about it than confused.

            “ **SO THE STEVEN IS ROSE QUARTZ AFTER ALL! I WILL DESTROY YOU THEN, AND YOU WILL FACE THE JUDGEMENT OF HOMEWORLD**!”

            Indeed, a new fusion stood on the beach. Towering over Pearl, though still much smaller than Malachite, a being with dark grey feet and tall cylinder shaped legs of a pinkish-red hue gleamed in the moonlight. A large pink gem shone on their stomach, and a slight protrusion of chest above it angled inward toward the head, which looked to be bordered by a large, circular helmet rather than hair. When the wind blew, however, it was shown to move softly, and was likely a conglomerate of tightly wound curls. The eyes were huge, round and laughing, all four of them in a horizontal row. The nose was a soft ridge beneath the eyes, and the mouth was wide and grinning. Four tubular, pinkish arms came from their shoulders and from either side of their upper back respectively, and all met at bulky grey joints and soft, black hands. The left hand coming from the shoulder had a red gem gleaming in its palm.

            “Destroy me? I don’t think so! Not when we’re finally having this much **_FUN_**!” The new fusion threw back its head to laugh loudly at the sky. “WE ARE **TOURMALINE**! And if you think I’m going to let you ruin our good time, you are WRONG! Let’s show you the kind of fun a fusion is meant to be!”

            “ **FUN?! DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH**!”

            “Don’t worry sweetheart, it’ll all make sense,” Tourmaline’s giant head lowered a little and their eyes narrowed, glittering, “Once I knock some sense into you.” A pause, the eyes softening a little, “Not too hard of course, I know how much Lapis is struggling inside of you.”

            **“ENOUGH! THERE IS NO LAPIS LAZULI, ONLY MALACHITE!** ” With that, the monstrosity tore across the beach, kicking up sand… until it hit Ruby’s glassy trail and ended up slipping and falling on her face.

            “We will see about that.” Tourmaline breathed, summoning a familiar pink shield from their belly. That was only temporary that it looked familiar however, as when it was grabbed in Tourmaline’s left hand, it burst into flame and red seared around the edge. They wound up and their upper body spun like a top, but they threw the flaming shield like a discus with perfect aim, slamming it very hard into the side of Malachite’s head. The figure stumbled dizzily as the shield returned as though magnetized to its wielder, and Tourmaline smirked.

            “Never played Frisbee before, huh?” the fusion said coldly, but still with a grin as they strode toward their foe. “Don’t worry, there’s lots of games we can have fun with today…”

            Pearl swallowed from where she stood. Tourmaline… was powerful, yes, but she hoped that Steven would bring out the softer points of Ruby’s nature within Tourmaline if things got much more violent. And… she really, really hoped that the others were escaping on their own because she seriously doubted they would be able to do much to save them at this rate before something bad happened.

*

            On Peridot’s ship, Amethyst’s jaw dropped in shock when the glow faded and she had to shake her head to snap out of it. “WOAH! I never would have thought that would WORK! Hey, does that mean Steven and Connie can fuse with me too? How cool would THAT be? Did Steven fusing with Connie destabilize her molecules or something so she can fuse with other gems? How does it feel to be part organic? Is it weird?”

            “That… THAT’S SO UNSETTLING!” Peridot wailed, looking as though she was going to be sick, “Gems don’t fuse with… with LESSER LIFEFORMS!”

            “Connie is hardly a _lesser lifeform_ ,” the new fusion mocked scathingly, “She is a part of me, after all. And I am hardly lesser than the likes of scum such as you.”

            The new fusion… was very human-like. Probably from Connie’s influence. A tall woman with a flowing dark blue robe with light blue trim that ended at the ankles, Shoes that sparkled with ice glittered in the light from the ship’s walls. Her two arms were long, and the blue gem in her right hand was hard and gleaming. Her hair was long and black with white streaks throughout it, but piled high on her head in a series of complex braids. Her face had a pair of black sunglasses covering presumably two eyes while a bright blue eye rested squarely in the center of her forehead. Her nose was long and noble, her lips small and upturned. Her skin was a cinnamon colour tinged with blue as though frostbitten, but the fusion was in no pain. No, she felt _euphoric_ as she stood gleaming in the centre of the room, a swirl of frost surrounding her. At the same time, she felt a power she had never known, and yet had always known. At the same time, she felt a determination she knew well, but only could see it now. She was powerful, but knew what it was to be powerless. She saw many futures, but knew in her heart and her head that for now, just for now, she had to live in the moment.

            She had perspective, now. So much perspective.

            “So what do we call you now, sista? Huh? Huh?” Amethyst looked extremely excited. The fusion turned to her, a small smile pulling further at her lips.

            “I am Cobalt Spinel. I am rare to see, but when I come, it is with dignity. There is work to be done here.” She turned to Peridot with a deceptively warm expression. “I know you do not wish to battle us. You could let us drive you toward Beach City and we might help you against your superiors.”

            Peridot, for a moment, looked very vulnerable. She bit at her lip and hesitated. Cobalt knew she would refuse, for now, but it was wise to ask in this moment.

            “I… you don’t stand a chance against my superiors, and they will reward me when I defeat you Crystal Clods once and for all! GET THEM!” Peridot shouted and the beasts converged again, swinging at the two gems and prompting Amethyst to swing at them with her whip.

            “Amethyst, use your whip to swing the one on your left into the one on your right at my signal,” Cobalt instructed just audibly as she stealthily released a stream of ice along the floor while dodging blows. Amethyst nodded, looking a little confused as Cobalt Spinel now raised her voice. “PERIDOT! I know you’re scared! We all were, when we chose to join the Crystal Gems! But we realised that what the Homeworld does is wrong! It hurts everyone, gems and humans, and every other living thing in the galaxy! We destroy worlds, and destroy ourselves in the processes, ruling with fear and forcing us to scramble at power like hungry animals!”

            “I KNOW! What, you think I don’t know?” Peridot laughed a little hysterically, “Why do you think I haven’t contacted homeworld since Malachite took a dive? I’ll have my gem destroyed so fast it won’t be funny even for you clowns! But you’re going to be destroyed too once home world gets here, so what’s the point?”

            “There’s more hope than that!” Cobalt insisted, her circuit of the room nearly finished as she closed in on Peridot herself. “I have future vision! And yes, there are so many, many futures where you and I, and all of the universe are destroyed by Home World! But there are some where we win. There are some where… you join us, and we win together. Peridot, Garnet is full of so much guilt for what our betrayal of Home World cost our companions. The results are around us as we speak. But I, Cobalt Spinel, see something else. I can see the fear in your eyes that exists for Home World. And I know you find my offer tempting.”

            “I am NOT going to join you morons! I… I have a sense of SELF PRESERVATION!”

            “I know, and I’m going to leave you to think about where your self will be best preserved,” Cobalt Spinel said carefully. She and Peridot held eye contact for a moment before Cobalt flung herself quickly back to the centre of the room. “NOW AMETHYST!”

            “ALL RIGHT!” Amethyst shouted as she lassoed one beast around the leg with her whip, using her strength to swing it hard into its companion… the ice then made one fall into the next all around the room. Peridot barely had time to look stunned before she was slammed into, knocking into the beast on her right and becoming squished between the two.

            “HEY! OW! GET BACK HERE!” Peridot shrieked as Cobalt Spinel and Amethyst jumped over the body of one of the smaller gem beasts and ran down the hallway behind it, Cobalt leading the way through the maze of passages with much more certainty than before, though inside she still was debating the merits of each path. It was only that this time, it was more of a case of thinking, “yes, this one will work” rather than “but which will work the very best?” which seemed reasonable in these circumstances.

            With Cobalt Spinel at the lead, it was only a minute before the two gems broke down the door into the control room. It was currently on autopilot, and from what Spinel could tell the ship was somewhere over the middle of the ocean. But with the speed it was capable of, it shouldn’t take long to turn it toward Beach City. Cobalt issued quick instructions and Amethyst set to work fending off enemies from the entrance to the room which Cobalt was frantically running back and forth in, making the changes necessary before plunging her hands into the control panel. Had she not frantically changed the settings beforehand, she would have merely crashed the ship as Pearl had before. This way, the controls were now no longer programmed to only listen to Peridot. With heaves of willpower, Cobalt managed to turn the ship around and headed now straight for Beach City at top speed… arrival time 5 minutes. Needless to say, all gems save for Cobalt herself were flung to the walls from the g-force, but even with perspective, Cobalt Spinel could not deny the disaster that could be faced if they didn’t reach the other gems as quickly as possible.

*

            “HOW DO YOU LIKE DARTS, MALACHITE?!” Tourmaline screamed as they threw what looked like flaming sharp bits of pink glass at Malachite in numbers too great to be fully dodged. The creature was wailing and thrashing, trying to shake each round of ‘darts’ before the next onslaught and failing miserably.

            **“STOP THIS! I- I DO NOT LIKE THIS GAME**!”

            “Oh no? What about CATCH?!” Tourmaline’s waves of darts ended, and now fireballs were forming in each hand, all flung again as she spun like a demented garden sprinkler from hell.

            Pearl was busy doing crowd control. The darts had been dangerous enough, these fireballs would completely destroy any humans that wandered into their path! She would do something, but if Tourmaline was stopped before they FINALLY got around to dealing a finishing blow to Malachite, then Malachite would just turn on the city anyway. If only there was something that could hit her hard enough to- what was that in the sky?

            Pearl’s eyes trained up in surprise to see… Peridot’s ship coming in from over the ocean. Coming in… fast. Very fast. TOO FAST!

            “OH MY GOSH, RUN! RUN LITTLE HUMANS, RUN!” Pearl pushed at the few nearest her, but at last the incoming spacecraft was enough to make them start to turn tail on the battle and flee in panic. Pearl’s gaze turned back to ship just in time to see it make direct impact with Malachite’s face.

            “Oooh, ouch,” Tourmaline winced, dropping their arms and looking at Pearl. “What was that?”

            “Peridot’s ship, I think,” Pearl said, blinking at the flaming wreckage.

            “Peridot’s…” Tourmaline’s eyes widened and she whispered, “Sapphire and Connie.”

            Letting out a long whining cry, Tourmaline dove into the wreck, ignoring the flames and heat as only they could do while digging frantically. The first found several gem shards, and their heart caught in their throat at each of them. At first because they feared with cold certainty they could be a part of their companions, but then with deep seated regret when they realised they had been shattered a long time ago. The remnants of gem beasts.

            The first gem they found unshattered was green Peridot. Tourmaline threw it toward Pearl, who caught it and bubbled it quickly, followed by the Jasper and blue Lapis Lazuli gems she had found knocked out nearby. She would probably at least have to let Lapis regenerate later if Steven got involved, but she did NOT want to deal with it just now.

            Tourmaline, meanwhile, was getting more and more upset as she dug down. Yes, Sapphire might be okay as the other gems survived, oh and Amethyst of course, but Connie… Connie was human… fragile…

            Rose’s Sword was sticking out a little from beneath twisted metal. Pearl squawked as she caught it, complaining that Tourmaline should be more careful with Rose’s things. As if that mattered at all.

            Amethyst’s gem. It was… a little scratched up, but Tourmaline discovered a little of their spit healed that right up. That gave them some hope. The gem was tossed to Pearl, but thanks to the spit-shine reformed into Amethyst in mid-air and ended up smacking into Pearl and knocking them both into the sand.

            “PEARL! Oh my god, it was SO COOL, did you see that crash? Oh man, and you have GOT to see what Connie and Sapphire did- uh, who’s that?” Amethyst said suddenly, looking at Tourmaline in surprise.

            “Tourmaline, Ruby and Steven-“

            “Fused? Woah, can’t wait to see this, then!” Amethyst laughed.

            Tourmaline’s heart began to race when they saw the blue glow coming from under a mass of debris. Pulling it aside and barely registering the broken controls, Tourmaline was extremely confused to see the glowing block of ice. The ice would have been comfort by itself, Sapphire often used an ice shield to block herself from damage. But inside the block… wasn’t Sapphire.

            That said, whoever it was, she sure was beautiful.

            Not wasting time on this though, Tourmaline placed a hand gently on the surface of the ice which began to heat and melt away. After a couple of minutes, the figure inside began to stir, the eye in her forehead moved towards them… and suddenly some ice reformed.

            “No, hey! It’s okay, I just want to get you out of there, I’m Tourmaline. I just want to help, do you trust me?”

            After a moment, the sweetest voice Tourmaline had ever heard echoed from the ice block. “ _I do, Tourmaline. Allow me_.”

            The ice, quite suddenly, shattered. The sharp pieces melted however before they could hit Tourmaline. The other gem sank to the ground and took a deep breath before taking the hand Tourmaline offered. Red and blue gems clinked together and all eyes widened.

            “W-what’s your name?” Tourmaline asked in hushed tones.

            “C-Cobalt Spinel.”

            “T-Tourmaline.”

            Both laughed awkwardly.

            “Um, so you are… Ruby and Steven? You finally fused without Sapphire.”

            “Haha, yeah,” Tourmaline kicked at the ground. Then their eyes widened. “Wait, WAIT! Amethyst is over with Pearl, so is Peridot, you definitely have Sapphire in you, who is she fused with?”

            Cobalt giggled. “I think Steven would know, if he were here.”

            “He IS, you know that!”

            “Then who else is?”

            “…Connie?”

            “Yes!”

            Tourmaline looked boggled. “ _How?”_

            “I think Amethyst had it right, something in combination with Stevonnie having destabilized Connie’s molecules and the general belief that it was possible. Either way, it looks like things will be okay.”

            Tourmaline’s eyes watered. “I-I’m just so glad you’re alright!” They sobbed as they fell into Cobalt’s waiting arms. Cobalt ran her hands through Tourmaline’s soft curls as she hummed in thought.

            “This is so strange. I know I know you. I know why I know I know you. But this is still like meeting you for the first time, again.”

            “Huh, y-yeah,” Tourmaline sniffed, pulling back and smiling as they reached forward to pull down Cobalt’s sunglasses, looking into all three beautiful eyes. “Like falling in love all over.”

            “OKAY! THAT’S GREAT! LET’S ALL DEFUSE NOW SO CONNIE AND STEVEN DON’T HAVE ANY MEMORIES THAT MIGHT SCAR THEM LATER!”

            “O-oh, oops,” Cobalt Spinel flushed darkly and leapt back.

            “That’s right, forgot,” Tourmaline snorted before they began to glow and separate. Ruby and Steven looked at each other with bright smiles before turning to Cobalt expectantly.

            … Cobalt Spinel looked far more troubled. And wasn’t glowing at all.

            “… Cobalt? Are you okay?” Ruby asked carefully.

            “I… I can’t defuse,” Cobalt Spinel said in a hushed voice, looking very, very, alarmed.

            “WHAT?!” Steven screamed.

            “What’s going on, over there?” Pearl’s voice called out.

            “COBALT SPINEL CANT SEPARATE HERSELF!” Steven called back.

            “SERIOUSLY?!” Amethyst gasped. Pearl was twitching like mad.

            “Wait, what? But if Cobalt Spinel cant separate, then Garnet can’t reform, at least not as Garnet. And Steven will probably miss Connie, oh and what will we tell Connie’s parents?” Pearl moaned.

            Cobalt Spinel knelt in front of Ruby and Steven, looking despondent. “Sapphire knew this was a risk. She knew and took it anyway. Organic and inorganic matter cannot fuse without consequences, clearly, this was dangerous and now… I’ve ruined everything for us. And my… and Connie’s parents… oh I didn’t THINK-“

            “But wait! Ruby fused with me and we separated just fine! I joined with Connie and separated, I don’t-“

            “It’s because you’re only half organic, really, when it comes to it. You instinctually combine and separate the two every second you exist. Anything that is a part of you would have that power, it-“ Cobalt froze, then grinned widely, grabbing at Steven’s shoulder, “THAT’S IT! You can fuse with me, and then help us separate!”

            “Really? You think that would work?” Steven smiled back, looking excited.

            “Of course!” Cobalt straightened… then looked at how small Steven was compared to her. “Of course, the dancing will be a little difficult at this angle…”

            “Hey! What if Steven fused with me first, and then we fused with you? I’d LOVE to see what Tourmaline and Cobalt Spinel look like together,” The look Ruby gave could only be described as ‘heated’.

            “Uh, that might be one of the things Pearl wanted us to avoid…” Cobalt said unsure, but Steven was all for it and wouldn’t take no for an answer now.

            “It would be like fusing with Garnet AND Connie at the same time! How cool is THAT? Now I get to know what it’s like to fuse with Garnet that makes Pearl and Amethyst like it so much!”

            “…I guess so,” was all Cobalt could say before Steven and Ruby frantically danced and glowed, and Tourmaline stood before them again.

            “Oh, now what?” Pearl mumbled from the sand a distance away, not even sure if she wanted to know what else was going wrong.

            “Something AWESOME, probably!” Amethyst cheered as they watched the two fusions begin to move in unison.

            First they wiggled their shoulders to the left, then the right, mirroring each other’s movements. Then they clapped, Tourmaline’s four hands naturally louder than Cobalt’s as they spun and switched places. Their hands dipped between them, and the red and blue gems on their hands linked together. Cobalt’s other hand touched Tourmaline’s chest, trailing down to their stomach and grasping their stomach gem in a nearly possessive manner. Tourmaline gulped at the smirk Cobalt gave them and their feet began leading backwards, out of the wreckage and onto the sand. Tourmaline’s body temperature rose dramatically and Cobalt’s cooled, a floor of glassy sand and ice spread around them and soon they skated on it, turning in circles as Tourmaline threw Cobalt into the air and caught her, and Cobalt dipped Tourmaline only to laugh and turn her to spin, their top half staying linked to Cobalt by one hand while their legs spun in circles on the ground. The two drew close, their eyes locked, and cheeks brushed each other before a glow engulfed them both and they melded together.

            Pearl and Amethyst had to admit, this was a VERY impressive fusion.

            Her hair was like crystals, a head full of tiny braids covered in icy beads that seemed to glow with inner purple fire. They flew around as she turned her head. Giant, shimmering sunglasses of silver, not unlike garnets, filled the top of her face covering who knew how many eyes, her nose round, and her lips were full, her skin dark and shining and breathing. Six arms stretched from her shoulders, back and sides, somehow all of them able to function without running into each other, two of these arms holding gems of red and blue. A reddish-purple breastplate gave way to a soft stomach with a pink gem gleaming where the belly button would be. Beneath that, a long flowing skirt on the more blue side of purple swung down to her knees. Four legs stood beneath it, in high heeled boots. The fusion was tall… taller even than Malachite had been, her head seemed to scrape the sky as her back feet were planted in the ocean water behind her.

            With the moon framing her head, Mangan-vesuvianite could have been a goddess of old. There was a hush over the few humans remaining, and Pearl and Amethyst were thinking only one thing, the same thing the fusion herself was thing.

            _This fusion is stable. This is a four part fusion and it’s STABLE. This is unprecedented. A STABLE four part fusion. This changes everything. We have a chance against home world now. We might be able to pull this off._

            These thoughts ended as the fusion began to shake and glow again, three figures flowing from it and landing on the ground in a heap.

            “Ow, ow, ow,” Steven held his head, “Being fused with that many people is… overwhelming… BUT STILL AWESOME!”

            “AWWWWW YEAH STEVEN!” Amethyst cheered, running toward them.

            Connie sat up next, rubbing her own head. “It would need some getting used to be… oh my gosh you are SO right! And I just… I think it’s great I can help like that! That’s so cool! S-sorry for getting stuck in Cobalt Spinel though…”

            “Hey, it’s not your fault,” Steven reassured her.

            “Steven’s right,” a familiar voice also reassured, and everyone turned with bright smiles.

            “GARNET!” Pearl cried and ran to the red gem, throwing herself into her arms and sobbing. “Don’t ever do that again! Oh, I had no idea what to do, you KNOW I’m useless by myself…”

            “Don’t talk like that, you know you aren’t in any way useless,” Garnet said as she stroked Pearl’s hair and smiled at the others. “You all did a marvelous job today. And I must say it feels great to be myself again.”

            “Aw, but did you SEE Mangan- uh… mangavesuvie…. Manganitevus…” Amethyst stopped and seemed to be counting syllables on her fingers.

            “Mangan-vesuvianite,” Garnet said easily. Amethyst nodded.

            “YEAH! With her on our side, Home world won’t know what hit them!”

            Garnet shrugged, “Eh, maybe. It was harder to hold onto her than it looked.”

            “Even so,” Pearl sighed, “I am so exhausted I can’t even finish that thought.”

            “Right, WHO’S HUNGRY?! I say we get pizza!” Amethyst cheered.

            “Yeah! I’m so hungry I could eat half a pizza by myself!” Steven said, looking proud.

            “Well, I’m so hungry I could each a WHOLE pizza by myself!” Connie said, looking proud as well.

            “And I’m so hungry I could eat a truck load,” Garnet smirked. Everyone laughed. Garnet looked confused. “What? I’m serious.”

            “… you’re… hungry?” Pearl asked, who had been looking mildly nauseous ever since food had been brought up.

            Amethyst cocked her head to one side, “I know you COULD eat a truck load of pizzas but… you can’t actually be… hungry?”

            Garnet’s mouth opened slightly, then closed. She poked her stomach area and a gurgle rang out very loudly. Steven and Connie were staring too. Garnet hummed. “I guess some organic traits got left behind… just like Connie was left with the power to fuse after being Stevonnie…”

            “WAIT WAIT WAIT, I made you organic?” Connie looked horrified.

            “No, well, maybe,” Garnet cocked her head to one side, “Or Steven did. This is weird. I didn’t account for this.”

            “You haven’t been accounting for a lot of things lately,” Pearl snarked and then flushed when eyes turned on her, “Not that I blame you! Oh, the stress of the home world army, getting separate like that, the whole Steven and Connie almost dying, it must be terrible!”

            “Yes, well, future vision isn’t perfect,” Garnet seemed to struggle with herself a moment before sighing, “And… I’m not perfect either.”

            “Well duh, no one is, you’re still an awesome leader though!” Amethyst grinned, “So what if you need to eat now? You have an EXCUSE to! Hey, Steven should fuse with me next so I can feel what hunger feels like!”

            “Oh no, we do NOT need that!” Pearl groaned.

            Garnet looked at her family and friends and nibbled at her bottom lip as her stomach growled again. “Well, I’ll go get the pizza then… meet you all back at the house!” Garnet called as she hurried away, cataloguing the shouts of preferred pizza toppings being shouted behind her.

            Once she was a fair distance away, Garnet stopped running and shivered, looking down at the gems on her hands. That had been… exhilarating. She had separated, for the longest time in centuries, and after a while things had gone… well. Steven and Connie of course helped with that, helped a lot, but she had gotten through it. And being Cobalt and Tourmaline… well, that was fascinating on its own, wasn’t it?

            “Not without leaving its scars though….” Garnet winced as her stomach growled again. It was starting to hurt too. Being partly organic was going to be a strange experience. And it left a lot of unanswered questions. How organic was she, now? She felt she could still defuse if she had to, but what would happen if she destabilized to the point where she would normally retreat into her gem? They protected Steven so diligently because they didn’t know what his organic body would do if he was hit with a kill-blow. What would happen to her?

            Oh but the possibility of using Mangan-vesuvianite in combat against home world… dangerous yet very tempting indeed.

            Her stomach growled again, and suddenly Garnet laughed. If nothing else at all, being organic was certainly a distraction from all these thoughts. And anyway, she was still feeling so good from all the fusing she had just gone through!

            The future was uncertain and she could see so many possibilities turning behind her eyes with the fusions discovered and her newfound weaknesses and strengths, and their current enemies caged and the new ones on the horizon. So many futures, where she is separated, where she fights, where she fails… so very, very many futures.

            It didn’t matter, really, which one came true in the end. She would face it when it came, with her dearest friends by her side. She was a fusion, and she was secure, and happy, and if she parted again, she knew she could count on her friends to keep her grounded and bring her back together safely. She was the leader. But she was not perfect. She didn’t have to be. With friends like hers, perfection was not necessary. Only the love that held them all together in the end.

            Time to get those pizzas.

*

            Once, thousands of years ago, Ruby and Sapphire looked at each other and told each other that they never wanted to be apart. No matter what the world threw their way. No matter what anyone might say. And they danced, and Garnet was born, and as she danced through the world she became more than the sum of her parts.

            Once, in the early hours of the morning on the beach of a tiny planet called Earth, Garnet told herself that she and her friends could be on opposite ends of the galaxy and still be together if they loved each other hard enough, no matter what time and distance got in the way. And as she ate her way through a third pizza in the kitchen with laughing humans and gems around her, they all became more than friends. They became her family. And a warm glow filled Garnet’s heart at that fusion too.


	7. Fanart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My friend drew fanart of the fusions for this story and they were SO GOOD I had to share

Cobalt Spinel

 

Mangan Vesuvianite

 

Tourmaline


End file.
